Arrival!!

I made it to Puebla with no major catastrophes!! Lots of nodding my head to things I didn't understand. But, so far it has always gotten me to where I am supposed to me.

Flying into Cancun: impressions: I have never seen such a large expanse of trees in my life. Already excited for the bus ride.

Shuttle to the bus station: $14. I pile in with 10 other people, all going to really nice hotels on the beach. I have also never seen water that color before. Excited again. I try and talk to the driver after it was just me and him. Total failure. We end up talking in English.

Bus station: my biggest adventure in Spanish. I walk in, and I see ADO GL, the line that I wanted tickets for. It says the price that I know is what I looked at online, but it says 10:00 and 1:00 everyday. Well.... It was 3:30 in the afternoon. Am I going to have to stay overnight?? Shit. I use my trusty "wander around just looking at everything" move at this point, and I see another ticket line, this one says Puebla too, at 5:00. But this isn't what I had looked at. I thought this is one of the not as nice busses. So I just march up to the ticket counter for ADO GL and Say my line "Yo necisito un boleta para Puebla." Crash and burn. This sets of a whole lot of things I don't understand. I repeat "Puebla." I'm feeling like an idiot. She shows me the screen, and sure enough, this is the right place, on the computer it is showing the 4:30 and 7:30 bus departures. Whew. I get a ticket. Not a window seat though. I try and ask where I take my bag to go under the bus. Keep in mind, I am now reduced to pointing and nodding. She points and says waiting room. OK. I take my little ticket, which I am not even sure is actually a ticket, it looks more like a reciept, and I start wandering. I see people sitting. I go there. I sit and get out my Spanish dictuonary and translate every sign I see. I see the luxury waiting area, I read the exit signs, but I can't figure out how to know which door to get to. I mean, it is like 3:55 at this point. So I wander back to the ticket area, and I see the luggage check. I walk up, and stand there for a while, and someone helps me. He looks at my ticket, and points back to the waiting area. I nod, and walk away. No idea what I'm doing. Then I look at my ticket, and I decide that "Executive" means luxury. I walk to the guard at the door, and sure enough, he lets me in, and there is my luggage check! Whew! Get that taken care of, and I sit.

So I'm sitting, and the luxury waiting room only has one door to the busses, which is the Meridia bus, so I figure the Puebla bus will pull up there. An attendant walks through announcing Meridia, so I figure the same will happen with Puelba. At about 4:20, I see the guard approach someone who I had seen walking around. She looked European, and she was alone. He pointed to the door, she thanked him and hurried out. This gets me nervous. So I start translating everything around me again. Then the guy next to me asks "Habla Espanol?" I shake my head no. He motions to the loud speakers, asking if I understand them. I say no. He looks at my ticket and points to the door. I yell thank you as I'm running away. Get on the bus for Mexico City and 5 minutes later, away we go. It was close. But, I made it.

I sit by the same guy (except for 10ish pm to 8amish, when the bus was almost empty), and we don't say a word to each other. Good times. I end up making friends with the European girl from earlier. She was from Denmark, and was going to Puebla too. Yay!! She translated things for me and we became a team whenever we had to get off the bus, so that we didn't miss it. It had already happened to her once.

Drove through jungle, farms, and mountains. It was pretty sweet. Lots of cows wandering around, sheep, goats, donkeys. The area near Cancun looked like a rainforest. The mountains were sweet, covered in trees. I have never in my life seen so many trees. Trees as far as the eye can see. No exits covered in fast food chains and bright lights every two miles. Just trees and small farms. It was a nice change of pace from I-75. OH!! And night time was actually dark!

So, I get to Puebla, but the cell phone isn't working to call Rudy, so Sasha and I get taxis, exchange information, and I'm off speeding towards what I hope is Annie and Rudy's house. I'm calling Annie, Mom, Dad, Alan, and Carlos trying to figure out what the Mexico Country Code is to call, because when I tried Rudy's phone from my Michigan phone, it doesn't work. On a whim, I try it again, and it goes through! So, now I know I have to deal with the panic I just caused in all of my family members. The cab drops me off at the right place, and about 20 minutes later Rudy shows up!

We just went out to a really nice dinner in a mall. I froze up again and was unable to speak, but we're working on that.

Rudy had to stop at work again for a little bit. Then we're going grocery shopping.

More tomorrow about this awesome little house!!! I need a shower. Bad.